Questions from a New Player

[the_king_in_yellow]

Hello, I was not sure whether to post my questions in a single thread or to start a separate thread for each question. If I erred, I ask your pardon.

I have played the original ageod Civil War game so it is my frame of reference.

1. In the Civil War I was able to open a screen and sort my generals by their seniority. Considering the heavy penalties involved if you promote someone ahead of senior generals I thought this game would have a similar feature but I cannot find it. In the strategic Atlas I see I can sort the generals by their stats but not by their seniority. I am missing something or is there currently no way to sort by seniority?

2. In the civil war I could increase the production of ammo, supplies, and war supplies by developing the economy in individual states. I would very much like to increase the production of war supplies so I can build more naval units but I am unaware of how I can do this in TEAW. Since I have to build 4 battleships or battlecruisers at the same time instead of separately, the expense is staggering and I have to spend many turns accumulating enough war supplies. I know I can build an ammunition factory but do those produce war supplies? Is there any way I can increase the number of war supplies produced by my alliance or is it a fixed number? If it is fixed does that number increase as the war goes on and more factories are converted to wartime production?

3. Played as the Western Entente I am having a difficult time attaching British Armies Kitchner's GHQ. How do I do this? I tried detaching General French from the BEF and shipping him back across the channel so he could form a real army. But the next turn after I had attached him and loaded him onto the transport and sent him back France he disembarked and it did not look like he was in the command chain anymore. Did I do something wrong? How do I get my British 3 star generals to form armies? Do I have to attach them to the French GHQ and not the British?

4. What is the best composition for fleets? I see all sort of different ships but I am a little hazy on how best to deploy them. What ships should I put into my main battlefleet? How many destroyers or light cruisers in proportion to battleships or battlecruisers? What sort of ships do I need to have in the blockade and shipping boxes as the Entente?

[the_king_in_yellow]

Sorry, I just thought of another questions:

In the civil war I could increase my rail and river transport capacity. Is there a way to do that in TEAW? Sometimes when I strategically redeploy units across the map the game will informed me that my rolling stock has been decreased by a certain amount. Because I have no idea how I can get this back it makes me extremely reluctant to redeploy anything. Are these points permanently lost or do they regenerate?

[Merlin]

1. That's not there in the newer games. A lot of people have asked for it.

2. War supplies are whatever they are at start. I've never built ships other than merchants and subs because they take so long to build any decisive naval action is most likely going to happen before you can use them.

3. When you put a corps into transports, they lose their corps designation and have to be reformed. After Kitchener unlocks, ship him around instead.

4. Battle fleets should be packed with every dreadnaught, battleship, and heavy cruiser you can manage, heaviest first. Fill out the remaining CP with light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats you can fit. Keep the subs out of mobile fleets and in their own groups. Battle fleets should be used to interdict enemy fleet movement and more importantly in the blockade boxes. Light fleets (no larger ships than light cruisers) should be used for transport escort or in the shipping boxes to protect the merchants.

Your rail cap regenerates every turn. River is kind of unnecessary and you'll only use it every once in a great while. Anything you SR comes out of your rail pool, but the pool will recover the next turn. You don't need to build more and can't, but everyone except possibly Russia has way more than they need until the aircraft start showing up in large numbers. Then you might very well eat into your rail pool since aircraft suck huge amounts of rail cap.

[the_king_in_yellow]

Thank you for the quick response!

A shame about the war supplies- I know dreadnoughts and battlecruisers are kind of a luxury but I just love them too much not to build more of them.

[Merlin]

If you don't waste your men in 1914, you can afford them in 1915. Just be prepared for the state funds required and the consequent inflation.

[the_king_in_yellow]

3. When you put a corps into transports, they lose their corps designation and have to be reformed. After Kitchener unlocks, ship him around instead.

I was wondering if you could clarify this point a bit more. If I wanted to attach the BEF to Kitchener then I need to ship him to France- do I need to reform Kitchner's GHQ as well once I offload him the transport? What I would like is to attach all the British armies to Kitchener for the CP. I'd like to have a British army in France, Egypt/Palestine and in Africa. Do I need to ship Kitchener to each of these locations? If Kitchener's GHQ needs to be reformed after they leave the transports that would mean I would lose the army status for forces I have previously attached? For example, if I ship Kitchener to France and attach General French to him, and then ship Kitchener to Egypt to attach more armies will General French revert back to an independent command?

[DrPostman]

Transport doesn't change anything with GHQs. You can ship them around safely and
not have to reform them. I've done this in order to create an army in Africa and the
Middle East.

[the_king_in_yellow]

Excellent! Kitchener is about to go on a world tour.

[Kensai]

Actually, I feel that this is an odd spot. There should be penalties if a GHQ moves too far away from its attached Generals, especially in another Theater. Otherwise it is too gamey, one has to simply activate his Generals in the beginning and then move the circus around while still reaping the fruits of the full CPs. My opinion, so far, is that the GHQ's aura should be a major theme. There should be a respectable advantage for the Generals that operate inside it and a serious disadvantage for those that are out of it.

[Merlin]

There is. The department C-in-C traits, command traits, and stat increases for subordinate army commanders only work within the respective department or influence radius of the GHQ.

The only real solution is to somehow get armies to survive an ocean voyage. This is particularly irritating in CW2, where duplicating McClellan's Peninsula Campaign results in every one of your corps being detached even though they stick with the army and land in the same region.

[Kensai]

The negative aspect is still missing. One can activate an army to double the CPs and then move that army to a totally different theater, far far away from the original GHQ and its aura.